VALKYRJA — Contamination (review)

VALKYRJA — Contamination album cover Album · 2010 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Vehemency
I’m not particularly fond of the current Swedish black metal trend - so-called orthodox black metal recorded in the famous Necromorbus studio to sound as sterile as possible - but I must admit that Valkyrja’s second album, Contamination, sounds rather good. I haven’t heard the band’s previous album, but at least this albums follows the footsteps of other Swedish bands, namely Watain and Ondskapt, and succeeds well enough.

If you hear a sample of this album, I bet you would think it’s a Watain song. From the ultimately similar singer to the overall compositional style, everything is very close to the aforementioned band. Tempos change from fast (”Oceans to Dust”) to mid-paced material such as ”Ambience of the Dead”. The music is rather technical and there’s some time signatures that aren’t really common in black metal. Luckily it’s not exaggerated so that Contamination flows nicely and doesn’t turn into a total show-off of technical abilities.

Recorded in Necromorbus, I’m always a bit afraid of how the result will sound, but Contamination isn’t overly polished. The sound is professional and clear but not overly sterile. Thus I’m able to enjoy the album from the intro to the end, although I do think that Contamination would do better if it excluded at least one song. Going through 60 minutes of this music can be a numbing experience.

I certainly wouldn’t call Contamination an essential album, but for its style it’s an enjoyable piece that, however, will most likely to be forgotten in a few years. The trend is going strong right now but I don’t see a long lifespan for it. Nonetheless, Valkyrja is among the best ones in this certain style and I could expect even better material from them in the future, as long as they don’t keep following too much their idols from now on.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The God Particle US Power Metal
ATTACKER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Mortality Technical Death Metal
REPLICANT
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Soma Collective Metalcore
GRAYWEATHER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Labyrinth Metalcore
SILVER FANG
Buy this album from MMA partners
Reimmerse Metalcore
UNTIL THE UNKNOWN
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Silver Fang - Labyrinth (Official Music Video)
SILVER FANG
Bosh66· 17 hours ago
Silver Fang - Labyrinth (Lyric Video)
SILVER FANG
Bosh66· 17 hours ago
Silver Fang - Labyrinth (Visualiser)
SILVER FANG
Bosh66· 17 hours ago
Silver Fang - Wish I Never (Lyric Video)
SILVER FANG
Bosh66· 17 hours ago
Silver Fang - Wish I Never (Visualiser)
SILVER FANG
Bosh66· 17 hours ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed